Taking BritishAirways to Court.... viable proposition??

[tartansprite]

British Airways overcharged me £270 for hand luggage which was within the allowance. I am really cross about this and really want my money back but wonder if I have any chance in the small claims court. My only hard evidence as such is that they charged me (giving me a receipt), along with my ebay purchase history which shows that I bought 3 ladies handbags 2 weeks prior to travelling which were very close to the dimensions allowable (but under the limit) for handbags. I already wrote to the CAA who said they have referred the matter again to BA. That was three months ago and heard nothing since.

 

Extended version of above story to give clarity if needed:Travelling to Zambia from Heathrow with BA, we decided to 'take advantage of the generous hand luggage allowance' as BA encouraged one to do. We turned up with two sets of hand luggage which were purchased to fall inside the measurement criteria i.e, one large hand luggage and one handbag each. At Heathrow the BA Customer Services Manager!!! denied our handbags with the spurious reason that they were neither briefcases nor laptops and he pointed to a sign which mentioned briefcases and laptops but had no mention of handbags. I objected that online reference is definitely made to handbags but I was flatly refused. There was no opportunity given for us to measure our handbags in a handbag bin (I do not even believe I saw such a bin-only for the large handluggages which our large hand luggage fitted) and a tape measure was certainly not used to dismiss our bags which anyway were within the 45x36x20 cm limit for handbag, briefcase or laptop.

 

On complaining to BA I have merely been told they will not refund me but their reply did state that hand luggages included hand bags!!! Big deal!

 

How can I take BA to court since they wrongly charged me 270 pounds for these hand bags which were within all the criteria of weight and size and type. I still have one of the handbags and the recent ebay purchase information of our hand luggage/hand bags as proof of sorts. The maddening thing is that the reason for rejection was so spurious!!!!

 

Can I win with so little evidence??

Edited October 24, 2013 by tartansprite
spelling mistake

[steampowered]

How many handbags were you trying to take? You say 3 handbags, but 2 people and the luggage allowance is only 1 handbag per person?

[tartansprite]

There were four of us with seven pieces of hand luggage between us: four large handluggages and three handbags all within the total allowance indicated. Not one of our hand luggages was over the criteria of weight or size for the itemised figures or for the summated weight allowance of 23kg hand luggage per person. In saying two sets of handluggage , I was referring to the types of hand luggage rather than the number of travellers

Edited October 25, 2013 by tartansprite
Clarity

[steampowered]

What did BA say in their response?

[tartansprite]

BA ignored the majority of the points that I raised simply stating that they could not refund me and that they had details of my excess baggage. (n.b. since we were forced to check in three of our handluggages we checked in the heaviest and took the handbags onto the plane; but it was the handbags which were the point of contention with the customer services manager who had absolutely no valid argument. I could not believe it - like we were in some third world country where corruption is rife.)

[fletch70]

Was it a direct flight with BA as I do know that some airlines have different allowances?